Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of included randomized controlled trials for IBS-D.

Study year	Number of patients	Publishing language	Diagnostic criteria	Criteria for improvement in overall IBS-D symptoms	Time point for outcome assessment	Moxibustion treatment(s)	Control treatment(s)
Ni and Lu  2001 [12]	56	English	Negative GI investigations and standards for clinical diagnosis for IBS from 1986 National conference for chronic diarrhea	Change of total IBS symptom score (predefined)	15 days (EoT)	Fixed points	Nifedipinum, 10 mg t.i.d.
Zhang et al.   2007 [16]	60	Chinese	Rome II	≥30% improvement in global IBS symptoms	2 weeks (EoT)	Ginger-partitioned and fixed points	Diet, psychiatric, and antidiarrheal therapy Enterosoluble glutamine 0.4 g t.i.d. or Smecta 3 g t.i.d. or probiotics 630 mg t.i.d.
Jin 2009 [17]	78	Chinese	Rome II	≥30% improvement in global IBS symptoms	30 days (EoT)	Traditional Chinese ointments-partitioned and fixed points	Berberine hydrochloride 2 tablets t.i.d.
Sheng et al.   2011 [18]	40	English	Rome III	≥30% improvement in global IBS symptoms	4 weeks (EoT and 1-month follow-up)	Herbal cone-partitioned and fixed points	Pinaverium bromide 50 mg t.i.d.
Chu et al.   2011 [19]	60	Chinese	Rome II and TCM criteria	≥30% improvement in global IBS symptoms	15 days (EoT)	Syndrome differentiation and treatment	Loperamide 2 mg b.i.d.
Chen and Wang  2013 [20]	64	Chinese	Rome III	≥50% improvement in global IBS symptoms	30 days (EoT)	Fixed points	Trimebutine maleate tablets 100 mg t.i.d.
Ma et al.   2013 [21]	210	English	Rome III	GSRS total score	4 weeks (EoT)	Medicamental pulverata-partitioned and fixed points	Pinaverium bromide 50 mg t.i.d.

IBS-D: diarrhea-predominant IBS; t.i.d.: three times a day; GSRS: gastrointestinal symptom rating scale; EoT: end of treatment; TCM: traditional Chinese medicine.